Christmas Challenge Comeback
by ilYamaTsuna7227li
Summary: We're back for Christmas Challenge year 3! The details are inside plus one bonus story wherein Yamamoto Takeshi is a nerd crushing heavily on the cool, rich, popular classmate next-door, Sawada Tsunayoshi.


**2014 Christmas Challenge **_\+ 1 Bonus Fic_

The 'somewhat' comeback of the 8027 pairing Xmas Fanfictions (brought to you by ilYamaTsuna7227li)

Hey guys, it's been awhile, with life and college and super typhoons taking away houses, I haven't been on much lately, though I am at the _8027 famiglia_ homepage annoying everybody with my allcaps announcement (you can ask anyone, seriously, you can). I hope you guys noticed my update surge storm during my week long semestral break. Now Christmas break is coming and if things go well, I'll update a lot OAQ Which would be awesome. I'm also participating in the _8027 tumblr secret santa_, hosted by the wonderful **heroicwonder** with her fyeah8027 blog, which I encourage you to join or follow XD

So basically here are the simple details for today's Christmas Fics!

**WHAT:** Any 8027 pairing (ex. 8072, 7280, 2780) in whatever age (TYL or otherwise), whatever rating  
_before_ **WHEN: **Must be submitted on or _before_ December 28, 2014.  
**WHERE: **Post it here in fanfiction guys, you have my permission to post it in tumblr or AOO or lj or whatever but be sure to post one here too :3  
**WHAT's THE PRIZE: **An 8027 fanart based on any of my stories (you get to pick which scene you want my sister to draw) and a one-shot dedicated to you (courtesy of me) by _your request_ (pairing, scenario, etc). Also, (this isn't much of a price but I've offered it for the last two challenges) I'll put you on my fave Author and Fave Story lists XD

The big reveal! The **theme** of the stories will be (drum rolls):

**SOULMATES**

For more specific details (it is based on tumblr posts other fandoms have it, we don't):

If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate- thing... OR

The name of your soulmate is written on the wrist (or realy, anywhere), OR

Or the red thread legend OR

something similar above that has to do with soulmates :3

(I noticed we don't have soulmate fics, guys! We can't have that! I mean we need to work up the cliché pairing scenes like coffee shops, college AU and all that jazz)

**It must be Christmas-themed. **(ex. Happened under the mistletoes, they found each other on Christmas or while Christmas shopping, etc.)

Other instructions:

**LENGTH OF FIC: **It doesn't matter how long it is, just make sure it's a _one-shot  
_**DO THE NUMBER OF REVIEWS COUNT?** Nope, not at all. So don't worry about that, relax.  
**JUDGING CRITERIA:**

Content _50%  
_Eye-catching Summary _15%  
_Originality _10%  
_Title _5%  
_Overall Impact (feels) _20%_

Any questions, feel free to send me a pm and all that jazz XD You don't have to copy and paste this on your story (but you could if you want to o_O), you just have to say 'MERRY CHRISTMAS 8027 FANS, A CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE BY YATSU' at the start and it doesn't even have to be caps locked.

So, yeah, thanks for reading and for thinking of joining Q_Q Also, thank you for your amazing support, my amazing famiglia (thanks for being their always), and _don't read my before June 2013 fics_, those were horrible XD. The winners will be posted on the second chapter of this story!

Here's the bonus one-shot!

**Summary: **Wherein Yamamoto Takeshi, the nerd, is the one crushing heavily on the cool, rich, popular classmate next-door.

* * *

**All I want for Christmas is you  
**_(Cliché I know)  
by ilYamaTsuna7227li_

* * *

His life was hilariously c_liché_.

He was _so tall_ it was awkward. He had unruly black hair and weird glasses on the bridge of his nose, given to him by his mom when he was seven because his eyesight sucked from reading coming books lying down or in the dark with a flashlight under his blanket. So he never _ever_ took them off (even when he bathes, weird right?). He liked wearing thick woolen sweaters with long sleeves and funny prints because they were soft and they had more sense of humor than him without even trying. Also. he was a not-so secretly secret baseball otaku.

AND he had an embarrassing crush on the most popular kid in school.

Typical middleschool drama.

Yamamoto Takeshi tried not to stiffen when a certain Sawada Tsunayoshi, level-headed, cool, rich kid with sunset colored eyes, and a very rare but gentle smile on his face passed by with his usual crowd of Italian friends: Gokudera Hayato and Bovino Lambo. Sawada had been Yamamoto's classmate since elementary school. Back then he had been a completely different person, so shy he wouldn't talk to _anyone_. But even so, Yamamoto wanted to be friends with him.

Yamamoto always sneaked things into Tsuna's bag during playtime, when the brunet would be forced to go outside. He was too shy to actually talk to him so he settled with leaving small presents in his bag, pretty rocks, post-its with smiley faces, and the occasional candy.

Whenever the brunet would come back from outside (with bruises because someone or something always tripped him and Yamamoto was too unconfident and uncool to help), his teary face would turn into a brilliant smile that would light him up from the inside. He knew that Tsuna never figured out it was him giving him all those gifts.

Then one day, the brunet vanished on the last year of elementary school. It surprised and saddened Yamamoto, his potential friend leaving before they could even be friends. But to his delight and surprise, Tsuna came back for the first year of middleschool and clearly, he'd changed. He'd changed a lot, and Yamamoto, unfortunately, wasn't the only one who noticed. Gokudera and Bovino just transferred in last year, a few years after Tsuna. Apparently they became friends with Tsuna during the year he was gone (he was actually in Italy according to the rumors).

You'd think that the complete 180 in Sawada's personality would put Yamamoto off, but only a fool would look at Tsuna and say he changed. Sure, maybe he did change a bit and he was cooler now and more confident and mellow than in elementary school, but if you looked closer (like Yamamoto did) you'd see that the important things about him hadn't changed.

Yamamoto had seen the brunet once, helping an old woman with her groceries up to her hilltop home. It was the same scene Yamamoto had witnessed when they were children, the young bruised up Tsuna, making an effort to carry the bags of an adult despite his pain, a smile on his face.

It was the smile Yamamoto liked and the person Tsuna was when everyone had their back turned from him. It was the gentle and caring side he portrayed despite everything people see him as and treated him as that made Yamamoto look up to him. It was the fact that despite his height in popularity, he was still humble and kind, that drew the otaku to him.

The tall teen groaned and banged his head on the locker.

Yep, he had it bad.

Sighing inwardly, Yamamoto opened his locker. A bunch of comics fell out and out of instinct, he caught them, but still, a few more toppled to the floor, pages splayed for all the world to see. He could hear the snickers and the laughter behind him and willed himself not to flush in embarrassment. He tried to think about, instead, on how pick up the comics while balancing an armful of them.

Before he could bend down and embarrass himself further, someone had already picked up the fallen comics with swift and precise motions. Yamamoto blinked and found himself eye-to-eye with a certain pair of sunset-colored eyes.

He gulped.

_Tsuna!_ "Tsu- Sawada," Yamamoto changed the name at the last minute, because calling your crush by his first name in his head was _mavbe okay_, but saying it out loud in real life? Big NO.

Sawada's eyebrow raised at his abrupt change in words but said nothing. Instead he placed the comics he picked inside of Yamamoto's locker. The baseball otaku wanted to slam his head on another locker, embarrassment coloring his cheeks as he realized how messy the inside of his locker was.

"Do you need help with that?" Tsuna's- Sawada's, he firmly told his brain- monotone voice brought him back to the currently reality (he was talking to _the _SAWADA,_ Sawada Tsunayoshi_) as he gestured to the comic books.

So of course, being the nerd he was, Yamamoto opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head, laughing awkwardly, "Uh, no, it's fine. See? I have it under-"

Of course, some middleschool god, or maybe the baseball otaku god himself, hated him because just as he was about to _assure_ Tsuna that everything was _under control_, the comics in his arms tipped over and fell to the ground too.

If the floor opened up and swallowed him whole, his only regret would be his dad's sadness and _not_ kissing Tsuna before allowing the floor to swallow him.

However, a soft chuckle startled him back to reality and Yamamoto looked at Tsuna with wide eyes. The brunet tried to pass off his laugh by clearing his throat. "Looks like you _do_ need help." Tsuna said as he bent down to pock up the comics,

Yamamoto stood there like an idiot for a few seconds (because he made Tsuna laugh damnit! Maybe the gods didn't hate him after all!) before he realized that one, Tsuna was picking up _his_ nerdy comic books and two, they were _his_ comic books which _he dropped_, so _he_ should be the one picking them.

The baseball otaku immediately bent down and picked the remaining comics on the floor, turning to his locker to place them in securely so they wouldn't fall out next time. Tsuna straightened and handed him the remaining four comics which he pushed in his locker with determination not to embarrass himself in front of the brunet anymore.

"Thanks." Yamamoto scratched his cheek after he closed his locker.

Tsuna gave him a rare smile that made him freeze on the spot but also made his face warm. "You're welcome." He said before turning to leave.

It was safe to say that Yamamoto was in cloud nine for the rest of the day.

* * *

Yamamoto grunted as he was slammed into the concrete wall, glasses flying to the ground and being stepped on by one of his assaulters. Amber eyes widened at the _crack!_ sound and he turned a scowling face at his classmates who froze at the intensity of his glare.

It had been a few days since the Sawada-locker-incident and the baseball otaku was not oblivious to the increasing glares and heated looks his classmates sent him whenever Sawada passed by him and gave him a private smile. Despite his classmates' beliefs, he didn't seduce Tsuna into noticing him (_him_? _Seduce? Really?_) and he was just as lost as everyone else about the rare smiles given to him. The first time it happened, Yamamoto had to look behind him to make sure that Tsuna wasn't smiling at someone else. (The laughter it got out of the brunet was so worth looking like a total idiot caught in the headlights).

But of course, Tsuna was more popular than he gave credit for. Right now a few guys (all of them having 'man-crushes' on Sawada because they were too scared to say they weren't straight) had ganged up on him after classes and dragged him behind the school. Yamamoto knew they were going to beat him up (because there had been a few who tried and they hadn't been successful because he always dodged them until they got tired or either gave up) but he never thought of fighting back until now.

His cloud nine from a few days ago had been replaced with a glum sort of mood when everyone started scowling and glaring at him, his usual smiles which the teachers loved had become strained and the real ones only came out whenever Sawada passed by.

Add his stress to the fact that these _idiots_ stepped on the glasses _his mother gave him-_ well it wouldn't be a happy day for _any_ of them. So, when the nearest thug pulled his fist back for a strong punch, Yamamoto let out a loud exhale.

The fist came fast towards his face and he caught it, no problem, even making the thug wince at the force of his grip.

Contrary to everyone's belief and the large sweaters, Yamamoto was actually pretty fit for a guy his age. Everyone knew that Yamamoto's dad ran a kendo dojo but no one ever suspected that the one who _actually taught_ and _trained the kids_ of the undefeated, famous, _strong_ dojo was _him_.

If any of these idiots bothered to swing by and get _some real_ training and exercise they would have known and understood not to mess with him. That or they'd at least get a fighting chance.

Yamamoto pulled the guys hand before throwing him against the wall, the thug slipped down to the ground. He stepped to the side as another fist came towards him and he tripped the guy's legs before hitting him on the back of his neck with his elbow. The third one came in with arms swinging and the otaku nerd just kicked him squarely on the groin before punching him on the jaw.

The three laid collapsed and dazed on his feet in under a few minutes.

The swordsman sighed as he took off his sweater from the heat, underneath, he was wearing a fitting short-sleeved black shirt. The guys who weren't hit on the groin looked up at him with wide eyes as he stretched the neckline, letting out a breath and trying to cool himself.

"You could tell the school that I beat you up," Yamamoto said with his usual, lopsided grin, "But I don't think they would believe you." He said before bending down and picking up his glasses. He turned to leave, leaving the three gaping thugs behind.

* * *

**Author's notes: **The next and last part will be on the announcement of winners XD This is just a short drabble guys.

Oh and uh, if it's okay with you guys, we have a supertyphoon (again after Haiyan last year) coming in and it would mean a lot if you pray for our country :3 Thanks and enjoy your Xmas challenge!


End file.
